A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

The word “evangelism” frightens most Presbyterians. It conjures up images of slick televangelists and pushy holier-than-thou people. It also may bring to mind images of people knocking on neighborhood doors or standing on busy street corners hawking biblical tracts intended to guilt and/or scare people into a relationship with God.

Actually, up to a point, all of those images are accurate. Such things are, in at least a simplistic sense, “evangelism”. For the root meaning of the word evangelism means quite literally messenger, “to be an evangel”. That is a messenger sent to tell a story. Specifically, the story of God’s marvelous and gracious love revealed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

However, despite our uneasiness for us to dismiss our task of evangelism based solely on such crude images, and for the most part thoroughly ineffective methodologies, is to give up too quickly on our calling. For each of us who have received God’s gracious love, for each of us who have been baptized into the new life brought to us by Jesus Christ, for each of us who have experienced over and over again God’s amazing unmerited forgiveness, WE are called to be evangels (that is to say, messengers of God’s marvelous story of love and forgiveness for His creation).

In truth, the issue of evangelism is not whether we are willing to be rude with people, or whether we are willing to go door-to-door, that is a discussion of methodology, and as most of us would agree, such confrontational methodologies are, in the long term, truly ineffective in sharing the gospel. More to the point, as we face our calling as Apostles’ for our Lord Jesus Christ the issue is what do we actually believe? To state it bluntly, “Do we believe that faith in Jesus Christ is a matter of life or death for us?”

If our answer is “yes”, then we can start to discuss methodologies to tell his story, but until we believe that Christian faith is that important there is no point in discussing evangelism. Until we believe that our faith is that important, it will be easy for us to continue to dismiss the task of evangelism as something that is beneath us, or ineffective, or something for “others” to do because we are shy or unknowledgeable about our faith.

However, if we do believe that faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a matter of life and death for ourselves and for others, then we can claim our calling to be Apostles of Jesus. First we have to decide if our faith is truly that important to us. Second, and this point is inherently connected with the first, we have to decide if we truly care about the fate of other people in the world. These two steps are necessary for us to think about evangelism. Once we answer the first question as yes; that we believe our faith is a matter of life or death, and then answer yes that we care enough our fellow human beings that we want to share this wonderful news with them. Then we are ready to respond to God’s call to be an apostle in our living. It is only at this point that a discussion of methodology becomes pertinent.

Accordingly, here in the first eight verses of the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians we are given something of a job description for being an evangel of God’s story. In this passage Paul lays out for us the how and the why of his bringing the gospel to the Thessalonians.

In the eight short verses before us this morning there are three major characteristics of apostleship which Paul places before us. (1)The first is courage. In verse two he wrote, “...but though we had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Phiippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition.” Paul was willing to proclaim the love and forgiveness of God and the miracle of the resurrection - even though he knew people would oppose him.

The gospel will always cause offense in the world. It either offends people’s sense of having to earn love from others, or it offends in that it makes demands upon us, or it offends in its claims of the resurrection which offers a reality that is counter to normal experience - primarily that death is not the end. In any case, the gospel always offends. An apostle must be willing to endure scorn and scoffing for the sake of the truth.

(2) The second characteristic Paul describes is that an apostle must act with integrity in the face of temptation. He reminded the Thessalonians that he did not flatter them in order to win their belief or approval. The integrity Paul urges us to have is to remain true to the gospel and to resist accommodation to the world.

The temptation Paul faced then, and we face now, is to revise Jesus’ radical message of God’s acceptance and love for all people by placing conditions on God’s love. The truth is, Jesus loved the prostitutes and the tax collectors and he loved the Sadducces and Pharisees equally. God’s love is for all people, not just the socially respectable, politically powerful, and morally upright.

Let us not deceive ourselves on this point, holding onto that message in Jesus’ day got him killed. Holding onto it in Paul’s day brought him societal rejection and retribution from the establishment, and holding onto it in our time will bring us into conflict with polite society and the political establishment we live in. Even so, an apostle is one who maintains integrity even in the face of the temptation to accommodate the gospel to prevailing public opinion.

The third characteristic of an apostle Paul describes is one of tenderness and vulnerability to others. In verse 7 Paul wrote, “But we were gentle among you, like a nurse caring for her own children.” This is particularly challenging for us who live in a culture which so highly prizes self-reliance and strength. We are loathe to reveal weakness and vulnerability to one another.

Specifically in respect to our faith, we are uncomfortable with admitting doubt or insecurity. We see such things as a weakness. Yet Paul tells us that we are called to be as open and available to one another as a wet nurse is with her infant. What an image!

As we think about the task of telling God’s marvelous story to others, we are called to be open and vulnerable about our beliefs. Why? Because the story is that important! Perhaps we have doubts about the variances between the gospel accounts. Maybe we keenly sense our own hypocrisy and short comings as we seek to live in our discipleship each day. Whatever the issue may be for us individually, the point for Paul is that we still are called to share God’s wonderful story with others.

There is no danger in revealing ourselves to others on behalf of the gospel. The plain truth is that no one has ever convinced any one else of the truth of the resurrection or God’s love solely on the strength of their own convictions. The way we live may be a powerful example for others, the strength of our convictions may indeed be persuasive. But in the end, it is always the power of the Holy Spirit which plants faith in another person, not our example, not our confidence, and not the strength of our convictions.

Yet, the witness of scripture reminds us that in God’s wisdom God has chosen to make use of us. God uses us to share his love. God uses us to share his compassion and forgiveness with others. God uses us to call others to the faith. God uses us to tell the story! God has chosen us to be evangels of his story.

Toward that end we are called. We are baptized. We are forgiven. We are loved. The question we now face is to decide how important that story is to us? To be apostles are we willing to have courage in the face of opposition? To be apostles are we willing to maintain integrity in the face of the temptation to accommodate? To be apostles are we willing to be tender and vulnerable with others that they may come to know and experience the love and forgiveness we already know?

In the end, evangelism is not really just methodology, it is a relationship with the world we live in. In verse 8 of Paul’s letter he wrote, “So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our very own selves, because you have become very dear to us.”

May those around us who do not yet know of God’s amazing grace and love become so dear to us that we care whether they live or die. May we care so much that we are willing to share our very own selves with them. Let us make it a matter of priority for our lives. So may it be for us. Amen.

Reverend Marc V. Mason

October 23, 2005

Trinity Presbyterian Church

Travelers Rest, SC